TVAddons' Adam Lackman Admits TV Show Piracy, Agrees To Pay $19.5 Million (torrentfreak.com) 14
In 2017, Bell Canada, TVA, Videotron, and Rogers teamed up in a lawsuit against the operator of TVAddons, the largest repository of Kodi add-ons. The legal action proved extremely controversial but now, after many twists and turns, the matter is now over. As part of a consent judgment (PDF), TVAddons' founder [Adam Lackman] has admitted liability and agreed to pay a cool US$19.5 million in damages. TorrentFreak reports: In a letter dated February 18, 2022, the media companies and Lackman told the Federal Court that they had resolved their differences by agreeing to a consent judgment. That was reviewed and issued by Justice Rochester, who laid out the agreed terms in her judgment handed down February 22, 2022. Lackman admits to communicating TV shows owned by the plaintiffs to the public, including by directly or indirectly participating in the "development, hosting, distribution or promotion of Kodi add-ons that provide users with unauthorized access" to the plaintiffs' TV shows, contrary to sections 3(1)(f) and 27(1) of the Copyright Act. The TVAddons founder further admits that he made the TV shows available to the public in a manner that provided access "from a place and at a time individually chosen by them" and induced and authorized users of the infringing add-ons to "initiate acts of infringement of the Plaintiffs' right to communicate the Plaintiffs Programs to the public by telecommunication," again by developing, hosting, distributing or promoting Kodi add-ons.
The Federal Court issued a permanent injunction to restrain Lackman (and anyone acting with him, under his authority, or in association) from communicating the plaintiffs' content to the public in any way, including via the development or distribution of infringing add-ons such as the 'FreeTelly' and 'Indigo' tools. The terms of the injunction are lengthy and comprehensive, leaving no doubt that TVAddons and all related tools and services are now dead, with Lackman unable to do anything remotely similar in the future.
"THIS COURT ORDERS the Defendant Mr. Lackman to pay the Plaintiffs the amount of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) in the form of a lump sum for damages, profits, punitive and exemplary damages, and costs," Justice Rochester writes. The judgment is in Canadian dollars but for reference, that's currently around US$19.5 million. The judgment also authorizes the bailiffs and independent supervising solicitor (with the assistance of computer forensics experts) to transfer the evidence obtained during the search of June 2017 to the media companies. Exactly what data was seized is currently unclear but it is likely to be sensitive, particularly if the trove includes user data and/or information about Kodi add-on developers. Finally, it appears the media companies will also be taking control of "login credentials, accounts, domains, subdomains and servers" in order to bring this years-long battle to a conclusion. Adam Lackman announced his relief on Twitter, noting that "It wasn't the outcome I had hoped for, but an outcome nonetheless."
The Federal Court issued a permanent injunction to restrain Lackman (and anyone acting with him, under his authority, or in association) from communicating the plaintiffs' content to the public in any way, including via the development or distribution of infringing add-ons such as the 'FreeTelly' and 'Indigo' tools. The terms of the injunction are lengthy and comprehensive, leaving no doubt that TVAddons and all related tools and services are now dead, with Lackman unable to do anything remotely similar in the future.
"THIS COURT ORDERS the Defendant Mr. Lackman to pay the Plaintiffs the amount of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) in the form of a lump sum for damages, profits, punitive and exemplary damages, and costs," Justice Rochester writes. The judgment is in Canadian dollars but for reference, that's currently around US$19.5 million. The judgment also authorizes the bailiffs and independent supervising solicitor (with the assistance of computer forensics experts) to transfer the evidence obtained during the search of June 2017 to the media companies. Exactly what data was seized is currently unclear but it is likely to be sensitive, particularly if the trove includes user data and/or information about Kodi add-on developers. Finally, it appears the media companies will also be taking control of "login credentials, accounts, domains, subdomains and servers" in order to bring this years-long battle to a conclusion. Adam Lackman announced his relief on Twitter, noting that "It wasn't the outcome I had hoped for, but an outcome nonetheless."
Re: Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think I can agree. As a Canadian with a large stack of "some company spotted your ip infringing" form letters going back years, I think to be pursued like this in Canada he had to be reeeally far over the line. And his reaction is just a little to the right of, "it's a fair cop".
And given he agreed to $25 million in the settlement, he must be wealthy, and probably got there via these circumstances.
I'm inclined to think, "Yeah... that makes sense."
Re: (Score:2)
He admitted liability?
With all that money he couldn't afford decent lawyers.
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It's an inference. From twitter: “It wasn’t the outcome I had hoped for, but an outcome nonetheless.”
That's definitely a sigh, and a non-aggressive capitulation. Make of it what you will. :)
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Because addons, specifically designed for pirated content, used the TVAddons site to distribute and fundraise.
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Somehow having all kinds of streaming agreements affects the end customers access to what is considered broadcast content (SPORTS). This sounds like a providers problem with the many contract and may legal predicuments they have put themselves under. The platform (software) and the user have no other desire to watc
How does this even compute? (Score:2)
You develop a plugin, no, you distribute a plugin and you're a pirate?
VHS anyone?
Re: (Score:2)
Did Adam view 23 million dollars in content? Nope.
Did Adam provide a tool, that could have been expressed a series of 1s and 0s for someone else to violate a agreement set forth by a publisher? Yep.
Was that user even aware of what was happening behind the plugin? Doubtful.
I miss those days (Score:2)
Damn, I miss the days when I could fire up my Raspberry Pi, start Kodi and use one of a number of plug-ins to find almost any movie or TV show that was ever broadcast or screened.
We knew those days wouldn't last but they were great for the few years we had them.
I'd gladly pay five times as much as I pay for Netflix or Amazon Prime Video for a legit service like that but I guess all the copyright holders are just too greedy and self-interested to realize the power of grouping their assets into a single, far
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Oh, no, they know the power of grouping. It results in a monopsony. (Monopsony is the opposite of a monopoly - a monopoly is one supplier with many customers, a monopsony i smany suppliers with one customer).
If you want a history lesson, s
Re: (Score:2)
Damn, I miss the days when I could fire up my Raspberry Pi, start Kodi and use one of a number of plug-ins to find almost any movie or TV show that was ever broadcast or screened.
We knew those days wouldn't last but they were great for the few years we had them.
I'd gladly pay five times as much as I pay for Netflix or Amazon Prime Video for a legit service like that but I guess all the copyright holders are just too greedy and self-interested to realize the power of grouping their assets into a single, far more valuable offering.
I'd love that too. I'm also realistic enough that something like "Spotify for TV" where the services have all the content, but compete on the quality of the apps, price etc is not happening. One of the reasons is price. It takes a lot more to produce a TV series or a movie than to produce an album. A lot more. Thus, the revenue stream needs to be a lot bigger.